


The Shadow Man

by Seacoasts



Category: Castle
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-01 09:11:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4014037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seacoasts/pseuds/Seacoasts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beckett and Castle investigate the mysterious murder of a young woman.  With no ID, no witnesses and nothing to go on, at first this looks like it could be a case that they may never be able to solve, and then things change.........</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Any characters not previously or regularly in Castle are my own, all others are not and are the creations of Andrew Marlowe This is set during Season 4 but before 47 seconds and doesn't contain any spoilers. This is also my first ever fanfiction so I welcome comments and constructive criticism.
> 
> Apologies for the huge delay in posting Chapter 2 and I know it's a bit short but I wanted to get something up since there was sich a gap between the first chapter and this one. Hopefully another, longer chapter will follow soon.

Chapter 1

 

Despite the bustling streets at either end of the alley no-one noticed the figure in the shadows, or what they were doing and by the time anyone realised what had happened they would be long gone. The figure was used the shadows, so good at going unnoticed that many who saw them couldn't even decided whether it was a man or a woman that they'd seen. Having finished in the alley the figure moved towards the busier of the two streets, blended in with the crowd and simply disappeared.

 

                                    -------------------------------------------

 

The following day Allan Talbot was walking his dog along a busy Manhattan street when he bumped into someone and his dog's lead dropped from his hand. He quickly apologised to the other person and chased after his dog, not wanting to lose it in the crowds. Following it down an alley past trash cans and empty boxes he finally grabbed hold of the lead and froze, lying on the ground in front of him was a woman, clearly dead and badly beaten. He phoned 911 immediately and went towards the end of the alley to await the police, he knew he couldn't leave a crime scene but he didn't want to stand too close to the body, the image of what he had seen was already burned onto his retinas and he knew he would have nightmares about it.

 

By the time Detective Beckett arrived the alley was roped off with police tape and the medical examiner and Detective's Ryan and Esposito were already there. She'd phoned Castle as soon as she'd had the call and knew he would be delayed way so wasn't surprised at not seeing him there with her coffee as he usually was. Beckett allowed herself a small smile at the image of Castle with coffee for them both, she wouldn't admit it but she liked the gesture each morning, it had become part of her routine and she looked forward to it. Acknowledging the officers standing at the end of the alley she ducked under the police tape and made her way towards the group of people looking at the ground. The two detectives turned at the sound of her shoes in the alley and moved to the side so she could clearly see the body, both looked slightly puzzled and Esposito asked the question for them.

“Where's Castle, thought this would be right up his alley, so to speak.”

“He's got some things to sort out so will meet us at the precinct later. So, Lanie, what have we got?” Beckett asked, acknowledging all three of them at the same time but directing her question toward the M.E.

“Jane Doe, no ID, purse or handbag. From the state of her and her torn clothes I'd say the poor girl took a helluva beating but she fought back so we might get some DNA from her fingernails. Can't confirm cause of death till I get her back to the morgue, but she has a symbol carved into her thigh” she moved the sheet covering the lower half of the body and indicated her left thigh. “It's not one I've seen before but I'll get it cleaned up and get some pictures of it for you.”

“Thanks Lanie”, Beckett responded and turned to Ryan and Esposito, “Any witnesses?”

Both detectives shook their heads, then Ryan spoke, “We've spoken to the dog walker who found her, think he might be finding a new walking route after this. He says he dropped the dog's lead after bumping into someone and chased the dog down here and found her, didn't see or hear anything and doesn't recognise her. We're still canvassing local businesses and apartments but so far, nothing.”

“Doesn't give us much to go on.” Beckett studied the victim and the alleyway as if expecting an answer to appear if she just looked hard enough. “Ok, finish up your canvassing and get back to the precinct, I'll head back there now and start checking missing persons and see if I can find our Jane Doe. Once you two are done here, see if you can get that photo of the symbol on our victim's thigh from Lanie and see if you can find out anything about it.”


	2. Chapter 2

Stepping out of the lift at the precinct, Beckett walked towards the bullpen and saw the familiar sight of Richard Castle sitting on the chair to the side of her desk. He was busily tapping away on his cell phone, one takeaway coffee in one hand, another sitting on the desk waiting for her. 

“You get everything sorted out then?” she asked, talking off her jacket and placing it on the back of her chair.

Castle looked up, slightly startled, “Hmm....Oh, yeah, disaster averted. So, what do we have?” He put his phone away and looked at her like a puppy waiting for her to throw a stick for him to chase.

“Not much”, she sat down, taking a long, welcome drink of coffee, “Jane Doe, no ID, no obvious cause of death, no distinguishing features, nothing to go on. Hopefully her prints will be in the system but I have a feeling that will be a dead end. I'm going to check missing persons reports for the last 48 hours see if anything comes up but if that doesn't work we'll have to wait for someone to report her missing.” Beckett hated cases like this, she knew that the longer it took to ID the victim the less chance they would have of catching her killer. 

Castle watched Beckett as she entered Jane Doe's details into Missing Persons, he could see from the tightness of her features that she was not happy about the case, even though it had only been open a matter of hours. He knew that the best thing he could do was to keep her supplied with coffee and keep quiet but that was a struggle when what he really wanted was to get out there and find people who knew the victim, people who saw what had happened or those who could suggest a suspect or two. Basically he wanted to do anything to help her even though he knew at this point there was nothing to do but sit and wait. Over the years that they had worked together his respect and admiration of her had grown so much that he doubted he would ever see anyone the way he saw her now; even the times where they argued or stopped talking were precious to him because he learned more about her, how to help, how to react when she was upset and ultimately how to be the best partner he could be to the most extraordinary person he had ever met. 

He suddenly realised he had been staring when Beckett groaned in frustration as her search proved fruitless. Castle quickly averted his eyes and pretended to be busy with his phone, for although he knew more about her than she would have wanted, Castle also knew she hated being the focus of attention, even indirectly, and now was not the time to irritate Detective Beckett. Having found nothing in Missing Persons and had no updates from either of her detective's or the M.E., Beckett decided to put what little information they had on the murder board. Her team were good at their jobs and would inform her the second they had anything so it would serve no purpose in chasing them up other than to suggest she didn't trust them and at that point nothing could be further from the truth. Beckett had her habits, one of which was to look at the information on the murder board and let it speak to her. True there was little on the board at this point but she perched on the edge of a desk and looked at it anyway, even the smallest detail could lead to something, the location of the victim, the way she was attacked, her appearance, all of these could potentially get things rolling. That was the thing about being a detective, you could never predict where something would lead.


End file.
